Trusting Betrayal
by jlandz09
Summary: Trusting his heart will eventually lead him away from the one he thought he loved. Taang, but you have to stay through to the end to taste it.


Trusting Betrayal

_"Trust your heart, and you will be with the one you love."_

Aang couldn't get those words out of his mind for some reason that day. He knew that his fortune was pretty much phony in every way, but for some reason, he was trying extra hard today to trust his heart, even though he was already with the one he loved.

"You should get the bag."

"Eh, I don't know."

Aang wished Katara would pay as much attention to him as she did Sokka. It sometimes felt like he wished Sokka and himself could trade places. That way, he wouldn't have to worry about being in love with Katara and he would get to spend all that much more time with her.

She was so brave too. Aang chuckled as they made their way to Earth Rumble Six. She didn't have a second thought about freezing those two jerks against the wall. For all she knew, they could've been master earthbenders, and she could have been completely outmatched.

But, there again, she was strong too. There was no reason that the two couldn't be master earthbenders and still get their butts kicked by her. He liked that in a girl. He didn't want a total pushover, and when Katara wanted something, he knew that one way or another she was going to get it.

He always liked to strategically place himself next to Katara. It was as if he had almost no regard for Sokka at all. The poor guy hardly ever got to spend some time with his only sister. She was the only real family he ever got to see. It didn't matter to Aang on that day though, because he was still trying as hard as he could to trust his heart, and his heart told him that Sokka wouldn't mind if Aang sat next to Katara yet again.

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He almost couldn't believe it. The girl from his vision was real. He never expected her to be so powerful though. His vision made it seem like she was a fragile little girl. The fight in the arena had really been nothing more than a chance to get a closer look to make sure that she was who he thought she was.

He was so frustrated at himself for beating her like that. He should have known that beating somebody up is not a good start if you want that somebody to be your teacher.

He was glad that Katara was doing all of the talking and information-gathering. He was too preoccupied thinking about the girl to try and find out where she was.

Finally, Katara did something helpful and went back to find the two jerks. He had been getting more and more frustrated with not being about to pick up any decent leads, and for some reason, he felt a little frustrated inside when Katara couldn't piece together the flying boar clue.

He even had to stop himself from saying something demeaning to her.

"How could she have known what was in my dream? I'm being too hard on her. Although, still, I thought I had told her all about it."

He then began to find any excuse to downplay his companion. He didn't let it show on his face though. He was supposed to be the nice one of the group, but the entire journey toward the Bei Fong residence was filled with resentment that he was approaching his new teacher with Katara. He knew he was being foolish, but a part of him for some reason didn't want her around when he met his new master formally.

When he wasn't thinking negative thoughts about Katara, he was sort of uplifting the girl.

"The Blind Bandit. That's really a cool name. I bet she's really smart and creative to come up with something like that. And strong. She totally made The Boulder eat dirt. She's brave too, going out there without being able to see. That's just what I like in a teacher too. Someone who is strong, and brave, and sma…"

He stopped himself.

"Wait a minute, why am I all of a sudden turned against Katara. I don't even know this girl, yet I've put all my trust into this one chance of finding an earthbending teacher. Why am I thinking all of these things about Katara? I thought I loved her."

They had reached the outer wall of the estate.

"This is it," he thought, "I'm really going to do this. I'm actually going to meet her."

Then, the words of the fortuneteller came ringing back.

_"Trust your heart, and you will be with the one you love."_

"No, it can't be," he thought.

He turned and looked at Katara. She didn't seem to glow or radiate with beauty as much as she used to. In fact, Aang was suddenly, without any effort, able to pick out several unattractive features. Then he thought about the girl. Her beautiful cloudy eyes were so deep and interesting. Her hair seemed to kind of grace her features rather than overpower them. Her petite frame seemed to be the perfect size. She was pretty much Aang's body type, and she was probably his age too.

He looked at the wall again. It seemed so close and inviting. He could no longer resist. With a single jump he had scaled the outer wall and could see the inner wall and then the garden within it.

He heard a voice.

"Aang! What are you doing?!" whispered Katara from the ground.

He thought for a second. He wondered if what he was doing was right. Was he already out of love with Katara? Did he really want to go through with this? The answers were surprisingly easy, regardless of how much it hurt to know that the last several months of his life were somewhat wasted.

He called back, "Trusting my heart."

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A/N: My very first one-shot. I'm not sure how much different the style of this is from the style of my multi-chapter stories. My favorite pairing though, so, yeah, enjoy I guess. And as for my regular readers, I know I said that I would start the final installment of the trilogy first, but I didn't want to stick this idea on the shelf and then risk forgetting it. I would really appreciate and encourage any review, good or bad, seeing as this is my first attempt at not only one-shots, but romance itself. So, yeah, Read, Review, and Enjoy...


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